Here's the next chapter of the story. Thank you all again for the wonderful reviews, I hope you will like this chapter enough to review on it as well.
Lady J as always thank you very, very much. This wouldn't be nearly as good without you.
Chapter Thirty
Planning
"Ok." Catherine spoke up to start the meeting as Grissom entered the room as the last. "We have put a rush on all the samples we've collected tonight, but does anyone have anything solid we can go on for now?" She looked around the people gathered in the room and continued when none of them answered her. "Nick? Anything from Burns' apartment?"
"I found several blueprints there," Nick answered. "One of the prison – God only knows how he got a hold of that."
"He needed a backup plan in case they were recognized leaving the prison." Sara thought out loud.
"Yes, that's what I'm guessing too." Nick nodded. "He had blueprints of both Dr. Christiansen's and the Governor's houses, plus detailed descriptions of the surrounding areas. There was a fourth one as well, but I haven't had time to find out what house it is." He spread out the blueprint out on the table so they all could look at it. "There are no notes on that one."
"We need to call someone in with an expertise in this." Catherine said. "Nick, get on it."
"Now?" Nick looked at her for confirmation.
"Yes." She nodded, and the Texan left the room with the blueprint under his arm.
"What else do we have?" Catherine asked the room.
"We have prints." Warrick spoke up. "I only had time to run a couple of them, but they were a definite match to Dunne and Burns."
"Did we get anything from the jail?" Catherine continued, wanting all new information to be in the open.
"Dayshift covered the jail." Sofia informed them all, looking down at a folder in her hand. "They didn't find anything there except for Dunne's clothes. The guards didn't even notice them leave because Dunne was dressed as one of them, wearing shades and a hat. The 'shrine' on Dunne's wall was gone, so presumably he took it with him."
"What shrine?" Sara interrupted, looking at the blonde detective.
"The walls were full of paper clippings - articles about Dr. Christiansen, pictures cut from magazines, internet printouts; things like that." Sofia looked at her apologetically.
"How did he get access to all that?" Sara asked.
"He was allowed to read newspapers." Sofia told her. "Burns must have given him the rest of it."
"And no one thought of reporting that?" Sara asked, loosing her calm.
Sofia shook her head. "He was a model prisoner. He didn't give them any unnecessary trouble so they let it slide."
"Let it slide?" The brunette sat up straight in her chair. "They let it slide and now he has escaped and taken three people…" She stopped as she felt Catherine's hand covering her own and looked over at the blonde.
"I know." Catherine said, looking her in the eyes. "But there's nothing we can do about that now."
"The day shift did get the surveillance from the parking lot." Sofia continued when Sara seemed to have calmed down somewhat. "We have the licence plate for the car they used to escape in and put out an alert on it. There's nothing so far, but we have every person in law enforcement on the look for it. Everybody knows that they took a cop's wife and child - we will find that car."
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"Why?" Bridget asked, wanting to know the reason why her sister would ask that question.
"Because I need to know." Veronica didn't give anything away, thinking the truth would upset her younger sister too much.
"I'm…" Bridget paused.
"The truth, Bridge. I'm not going to tell mom and dad."
"No, I'm not a virgin. I had a steady boyfriend for two years and we…" She looked at her older sister. "You know… About six months ago. But we broke up three months ago."
"Ok." Veronica thought about their situation for a minute. She didn't know if her sister could handle hearing about what happened to her the first time she met Dunne - she hardly knew her and didn't know how she would react to the story. But wasn't it better to be prepared for what would possibly happen rather than being violated without any warning? She sighed deeply, tucking the blankets more securely around her daughter. She needed to tell her sister the truth and just hope that she wouldn't break down.
"Bridget…" She stopped to take the younger woman's hand in hers. "Bridget, eleven years ago I was assaulted, raped and almost killed by one of the men who kidnapped us." She continued to tell her story to her sister whilst keeping an eye on her daughter, making sure that she wouldn't wake up during her tale. She left out the darkest details, but made sure that Bridget knew how serious it had all been. "So, you see why this is not the best place in the world to be." She finished.
Bridget nodded slowly, trying to process the information she'd been given. She felt numb. She looked down at the sleeping form of the little girl on the bed.
"Will they…" She didn't finish the question, but looked so intently at the girl that Veronica got her meaning.
"Not as long as I'm still breathing." She swore. "No one will ever hurt my baby as long as I am alive."
"Are they going to kill us?"
Veronica sighed and looked at the young girl.
"I don't know, sweetie. I don't know." She put a comforting arm around the girl's shoulder. "But I'll do what ever I can to keep you two safe." She promised.
"No." Bridget turned and looked at her. "Don't let yourself be hurt because of me. We've already hurt you too much. I couldn't…"
"Shhh…" The doctor hugged her tightly to her. "You were never a part of that."
"But I never…"
"You were four." Veronica held her out at arms length and looked her in the eyes. "I never blamed you or Matthew or Anita. I've put it all behind me and once this is all over we will change things."
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"Are you sure we should be here?" Benjamin asked as Kimberly parked the car at the side of the street.
"We need to do something." Kimberly sat still looking out the front window. "My wife and child are gone and I need to do something to get them back."
"Yes, but here?" Benjamin looked out at the building. "What can you do here?"
"I'm not sure if I can do anything." She looked over at him. "But you might be able to get something done."
"I haven't talked to them for years, Kimberly." He sighed. "She wants me to forgive them, but…"
"A rapist has your sister and…" She stopped, forcing herself not to cry again. "And your niece."
"What do we need from them?"
"We need people out looking for them. We need all the guards he can spare. I don't know what the hell we can do, but we at least have to try something."
"I know." He reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder squeezing lightly to comfort her. He looked over at her again. "Do you love her?"
"What?" She looked at him, not believing that he could even ask that question.
"She wanted me to forgive you as well, but I need to know first. Do you love her?"
"Yes." She looked him straight in the eye. "I would switch places with her in a heartbeat."
"She wouldn't let you." He looked out at the big mansion before looking back at her. "If you ever treat her like that again, you and I are going to have a big problem."
"I won't." She promised.
"If we get them…" He was stopped by a hand on his arm.
"We will get them back." She said vehemently. "Don't think in ifs. We will get them back." She opened the car door and jumped out of the car.
Benjamin sighed, but got out of the car as well, following her up the path to the door. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders as she rang the bell and looked up anxiously as the door was opened.
"Yes?" A young girl looked at them expectantly, as if it was completely normal to ring the bell in the middle of the night.
"I'm Benjamin Lavisham." Benjamin introduced himself. "I need to talk to my father."
"Please come in Mr. Lavisham." The girl opened the door so they could get in. "I'm so sorry about your sister."
"Thank you." Benjamin nodded. "This is her wife Kimberly."
"Her what?" The maid looked at him, obviously confused. "Miss Bridget is not married."
"Bridget?" Benjamin waited for the girl to continue, but before she had the chance to do so they were interrupted by a voice coming from the stairs.
"Benjamin?" A male voice asked.
"Matt?" The man looked up at his younger brother. "What is going on here?"
"Bridget has been kidnapped. Dad got Anita and I home right away to make sure that we won't be taken as well." The young man shrugged. "I don't think we will though. They seemed to be going straight for Bridge."
"God." Benjamin hid his head in his hands. "I can't believe this is happening."
"Anita is upstairs with mom." Matthew continued. "Dad's…" He made a helpless gesture with both hands.
"They took Veronica as well." Benjamin looked up at his younger brother who sat down on the stairs as the news hit him. The older man walked up to him and sat down, putting an arm around his shoulders. "And her little girl too."
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"Ok. Everybody get back to your evidence." Catherine was about to close the meeting. "If anyone gets something solid, you call me. Communication is the keyword in this kind of situation. All the techs know that this is absolutely top priority…" She stopped and looked up as Ecklie walked into the room. "Can I help you, Conrad?" She asked.
"I need an update. The Sheriff and I have a press conference in an hour and I need to know how the case is going."
"Rick, Sofia." Catherine looked at them. "Will you take care of that?"
"Sure." They both got up and walked out of the room leaving Ecklie behind.
"Conrad, that was a sign for you to follow them." Catherine told him.
"I would like the update from the senior CSI, not those two." He pointed after them.
"Take it or leave it, Conrad. I have other pressing matters to attend to." Catherine dismissed him.
He turned towards Grissom with a huff.
"Gil?"
"Conrad."
"Will you do something about this!"
"I am not lead on this, Conrad. There's nothing I can do except work the case."
Ecklie huffed again, but disappeared out the door in search of Sofia and Warrick. He would have to deal with this insubordination later.
"Brass?" Catherine looked at the captain. "Do you have anything else?"
"Not yet." Brass said. "But I will get out canvassing along with the uniforms. Chase and Jenkins will stay on Sara, and the Governor's house is covered as well. Sofia will stay here to sort the statements."
"I can help with that." Sara spoke up. When Catherine was about to say something she quickly cut her off. "It's not evidence. There is no way I could change statements from witnesses, not even the best defence attorney can get the case thrown because of that."
"I was going to say that it was a good idea." Catherine told her with a small smile. "Gives you something else to think about."
"Oh." Sara sat back a little in her seat. "Ok. Yeah, I'll help Sofia then."
"Good." Catherine started gathering the files in front of her. "Greg, you go start processing the evidence from the Governor's house. Warrick will come and help you when he's done with Ecklie. Grissom, you and I will start on the evidence from Dr. Christiansen's house." As both men nodded and got up and left the room Catherine turned towards Sara. "Will you tell Warrick to go on with the evidence from the Lavisham house when he gets back?"
"Sure." Sara smiled. "Thanks for…" She paused trying to find the right words. "Letting me do this." She settled on.
"You're one of the best, Sara. We couldn't do it without you."
"I mean…" The brunette got up and took a hold of the blonde's hands. "Thanks for letting me blow off steam and just continue like it didn't happen. Thanks for keeping me grounded during all this." She looked directly at the other woman. She took a deep breath to get the courage to utter her next words. "I don't think I could go through this without you."